I don't know for sure what was on those ships but Newport is where the
coal went out and the Iron Ore went in. When I was kid I heard stories
about the banana boats and friends Dads finding tarantulas... Day oh!
The short story about the Whale and the Dolphin is a re-telling of
Moby Dick from the perspective of the whale - It was an idea for a vast
musical theater production featuring me and the choir, the Sadies and
the Good Brothers that was dead in the water before we'd finished our
pints....
Off on a plane to New Orleans for the Ponderosa Stomp right now
(thanks Dr. Ike). Will try to keep checking in through the day but
don't count on any coherence...

Listening to the music/reading the book is such a treat. The choir is
there at the right points--they aren't turning this into choral music
(which might be grand, but would be a different production). I love the
interleaving of photos and writing about Pill and other places in Wales,
mixed with the gorgeous murals(? or smaller paintings)
illustrating/embodying the song lyrics, and your own stories.
It does seem, as someone already remarked, like a love letter to the place
in which you grew up, but one with tendrils to the imagination and your
own life that give the whole a context that a "mere" "Now let us praise
famous men" would not accomplish.

I am in New Orleans and shattered after a long day of PONDEROSA STOMP
- when you've had a chat about Tom Jones with Lazy Lester in the men's
room there's not that much left to live for. Drove round down by port
today and realized that despite the weather and the bright colors New
Orleans and Newport have a similar feel... red brick warehouses,
concrete with weeds busting through, forgotten stuff
It's a tough love letter.

Did you perform there, or did you just get flown down as a guest? I
keep hoping they'll put me on a panel there, but it never happens.
I also gather Newport's never had a hurricane or other natural
disaster on the level of Katrina...

I did the artwork for this year's poster so I went down to sign a big
pile of them. Had a strange humbling moment when a sharpie wielding
Eddie Floyd asked me to sign his copy!
There's much discussion about whether New Orleans was the victim of a
natural or man-made disaster (see Harry Shearer's excellent THE BIG
UNEASY) and South Wales has suffered much at the hand of neglect and
disdain from Westminster. In 1975 there was an earthquake in Newport
that emptied all the pubs but many just assumed it was an IRA bomb.

I hadn't thought of the connection between New Orleans and South Wales
before, but that's spot on--they are both the sites of colossal, man-made
disasters.
Although Katrina was a hurricane and was going to cause damage as a natural
event regardless, the main damage and deaths from Katrina were caused by the
failure of the levees, along 9th ward and elsewhere. The fact that the
levees had problems and needed work was known by the US army corp of
engineers for years before katrina struck. I think a lot of the conspiracy
discussion about the levees being blown up misses the point--if they are
broken and you knowingly neglect them for years, it is just a matter of
time, hurricanes come along the coast--that sort of knowing neglect is just
as good as blowing them up, imo. This sets me off--but Katrina was a man
made catastrophe--and disentangling all the threads will take you through
some of the crap that is at the very core of this country.

Oh, I feel like I'm still definitely doing Skull Orchard... it is not
put to bed yet
The original album was my first solo record and it happens almost
accidentally quite late (it seemed at the time)in my sorry career. I
was living in Chicago and writing songs that just didn't fit into the
Mekons' peculiar writing process and weren't fast (or American) enough
for the Waco Brothers. They just piled up and I didn't know what to do
with them but after a while I recognized some sort of thematic unity
which seemed to point back at Newport. They are mostly songs I wrote on
my own which was unusual for me and basically just a response to
arriving in Chicago.
Great Pop Things was an amazing thing to do for 10 years but it's
really hard to do a weekly comic strip and have much else going on in
your life. It is on the back burner charring up storm. My favorite
thing about doing it was getting these grubby little envelopes through
the mailbox from by mate Carlton B. Morgan in Wales and reading his
hilarious stream of consciousness tirades.
I always knew I was pretty good at drawing and really good at copying.
I used to draw from life a lot, people's faces mostly and copy
photographs, usually of Newport County soccer players and later
sub-Dali style eyeball head dudes in bleak martian landscapes. I
remember liking the surrealists a lot but that was the time when every
bugger had a soft watch or an Escher on their wall. I wasn't that into
comics but I loved the covers on my brother Dave's SF books and spent a
lot of time drawing spaceships. His bedroom was like a weird public
library dedicated to Asimov, Bester, Heinlein and Dick.

Never underestimate the power of a sibling with a well
stocked bookshelf or record collection!
sSince you mentioned it, what is the Mekons writing process
vs. well, non-Mekons writing?
And related to the spaceships, did Dave turn you on to Dan
Dare, the Pilot of the Future, and arch-enemy of the Mekon?

Also, Tom Jones shows up a fair amount in you talking about
Wales. Have you actually had any contact with your fellow
countryman? Perparhaps an underwear throwing incident you'd
like to come clean about?
How about John Cale? I know I'm operating on the assumption
that all Welsh musicians hang out and know each other.

Okay, this is weird. The video you posted was put up
by my pal Angus, and in looking at his other videos,
I see he has a file up of me, and some friends, racing
couches mounted on wheels down a hill at a 24-hour
Tom Waits party I helped host.
http://blip.tv/angus/couch-toboggans-145505
Odd, small digital world.

Lu Edmonds describes the Mekons writing process as: "nobody's allowed
to have an idea" - We have a rule that we don't bring much to the
table. It's not really enforced and there are blind eyes and loopholes
galore, but I wouldn't ever write a whole song and bring it along...
Some people generate a lot of material, other work in quality control
and brutal editing
You can't overestimate the sheer manly mightiness of Tom Jones in
South Wales. He is of course a national hero, a beer drinker and a sexy
man. My grandmother liked me to get up on a chair at Xmas and sing the
savage murder ballad Delilah. Green Green Grass Oh Home is virtually
the Welsh national anthem. When I met Lazy lester the other night he
asked me if I knew Tom Jones. I don't. Shirley Bassey neither!
BUT yes I did meet John Cale once in Austin (at a benefit show I was
playing for Alejandro Escovedo) and despite all the warnings I'd
received about him he was actually quite lovely. I know his cousins in
Newport quite well and I think that saved me. His recording from the
early 70s Paris 1919 and Vintage Violence are huge influences on the
S.O.R. record.
I can't remember how I discovered the Eagle and Dan Dare but my
brother Dave did take me to see 2001 when it came out in 1968 and blew
my 10 year old mind maaan
The band was originally named Dan Dare & The Mekons and at the first
gig they were pushed onto the stage on a sofa with the word SPACESHIP
written on the side. I wasn't actually at the first Mekons gig being
far too busy going to the beach in Wales.

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